-- Dennis Waitley
Day 58 AS
Not a lot of change other than down a couple more pounds and the good news that I'm finally starting to get back my stamina, due in some part I think to normalizing my blood pressure. My internist switched me to a less powerful med at its lowest dose -- and at first that made me go even lower. She had me cut that in half (no mean feat as the tablets are the tiniest ones I've ever taken to start with!) and that seems to be doing the trick. I haven't had a dizzy spell in several days and I am starting to feel more energetic -- yay.
The lighting at work is still making me want to rip my hair out and scream at my inability to cope with it. I have a new incandescent lamp on my desk and a new glare screen on my monitor, so am hoping, hoping, hoping that this helps. Fortunately I can do a lot of my work remotely, as long as I can connect to a network and have a telephone available, so I continue to work at home part of the day.
I saw my endocrinologist a couple of days ago and we're increasing my oral med at night in hopes of getting my morning tests back under 100. The good news is that after a couple of days it's down to 125 again, so we're close. I'll try it a couple more days and if it doesn't make it there I'll increase my morning dose also. The great part of this is that if successful, I'll be able to continue without insulin and without a second oral med... a great improvement from my pre-surgical state! I'll be doing kidney function tests again in a couple of weeks and am hoping they come back normal as this particular med can sometimes affect them.
More good news (from my perspective at least!)!! "Food freedom" day arrived a couple of days ago -- I can eat whatever I can tolerate now (except salads (too hard to digest still the experts say)) which will have to wait another few weeks). Rules are protein first, vegies/fruits next and carbs last, and I can still only eat 3-4 ounces at a meal, but it's nice to have more options. I may just enjoy a spoonful of dressing for Thanksgiving with my turkey. Last night my dad called to let me know that he and his wife will be coming up from San Diego to visit for the holiday so we're really excited. Hopefully this visit will end better than his last one when I had to leave them to rush John to the ER. That was followed the next day by emergency surgery to remove the alien empyema from his collapsing lung... we definitely don't want to do that again!! I'm thinking maybe kicking back, watching the parade and some football may be a lot more fun.
The other nice thing about "food freedom" day was that my restriction on drinking vs. sipping liquids was lifted also. This has cut my vitamin/med taking time in half almost since I don't have to chop everything up into small enough pieces to swallow with a sip of water. After two months that was becoming quite annoying -- particularly in the morning trying to get ready for work in a reasonable amount of time. Yippee.
One last bit of good news to share. This morning we had our annual IT all-hands meeting at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. I had no problem walking and talking at the same time with everyone else -- no breathing issues and no pain. It was AWESOME!! Also AWESOME was the fact that a few colleagues I respect (and like!) well were awarded for their accomplishments in the past year -- one of which even was one of the overall winners -- very cool, and very well deserved. I'm so proud of them!!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Back to work day!
"We don't do a whole lot socially yet, ... but when it comes to knowing you have a friend and a co-worker, it's pretty unique." -- Lisa Stone
Day 44 AS
Another milestone day: return to work day. I was exhausted before leaving the house, but managed to actually make it in at 8 -- my goal. Who would have thought showering, doing makeup and hair, and then dressing, could take so much out of a body? I found myself stopping to rest every 10 minutes or so -- insane. I'm definitely looking forward to getting my stamina back!!
It was lovely walking into my department's area -- the first thing I saw were some beautiful balloons (the crowning glory was a purple and pink dragonfly!) flying high above my desk. I love balloons -- nothing could have been nicer! On top of that, there was a great card and a lovely chrysanthemum plant. What a lovely group of colleagues I have -- I am most fortunate indeed!
The introvert in me had a hard time dealing with all of the attention -- a lot of people came by to welcome me back. I had psyched myself up for the once overs I suspected I'd be getting. I truly appreciated those who were direct and made no bones about it -- not so much the (very, very few) that gave me what I think they thought were subtle top to bottom glances. That being said, it was great catching up with everyone! A lot has changed in almost 7 weeks... and yet, very little at the same time.
The one thing I wasn't at all prepared for was the impact of fluorescent lighting on my eyes. Wow. About an hour after I arrived I had an awful headache that fairly quickly escalated to a blinding headache. And silly me left my liquid Tylenol at home (note to self, bring some in soon!!). At first I thought it was just my normal "I'm tired" headache, but after closing my eyes and trying to relax (which normally dissipates that in a matter of minutes), no relief. I had a couple of meetings after that, which (thank you guys!) my colleagues agreed to have in darkened conference rooms. After those, it went away. Within half an hour of being back at my desk it was back. Yikes. Another note to self -- bring in sunglasses (John suggested old-fashioned accountant's shades!) when next in the office.
One colleague had a plausible theory as to why the lighting may have been bothering me so much -- my senses of smell and taste are still hypersensitive. Perhaps my sense of sight is also?
It's great working with so many concerned, thoughtful folks... I'm going to work from home tomorrow in hopes it will be a pain-free day. Then back to the office Monday, liquid Tylenol and sunglasses in hand! Another note to self -- bring in some V8 as a back-up lunch plan in case you're coming down with a blinding headache during lunch (eating tuna salad, no matter how good it is, is not easy when you're on the border of becoming nauseous!).
A bunch of people pitched in and picked up different parts of my job while I was gone, so I'm incredibly grateful for the fact that the transition back is going to be a cinch from an actual work perspective. Everything's current, so my only catch-up need is to review where everything's at from a status perspective and to pick up the reins once again.
Day 44 AS
Another milestone day: return to work day. I was exhausted before leaving the house, but managed to actually make it in at 8 -- my goal. Who would have thought showering, doing makeup and hair, and then dressing, could take so much out of a body? I found myself stopping to rest every 10 minutes or so -- insane. I'm definitely looking forward to getting my stamina back!!
It was lovely walking into my department's area -- the first thing I saw were some beautiful balloons (the crowning glory was a purple and pink dragonfly!) flying high above my desk. I love balloons -- nothing could have been nicer! On top of that, there was a great card and a lovely chrysanthemum plant. What a lovely group of colleagues I have -- I am most fortunate indeed!
The introvert in me had a hard time dealing with all of the attention -- a lot of people came by to welcome me back. I had psyched myself up for the once overs I suspected I'd be getting. I truly appreciated those who were direct and made no bones about it -- not so much the (very, very few) that gave me what I think they thought were subtle top to bottom glances. That being said, it was great catching up with everyone! A lot has changed in almost 7 weeks... and yet, very little at the same time.
The one thing I wasn't at all prepared for was the impact of fluorescent lighting on my eyes. Wow. About an hour after I arrived I had an awful headache that fairly quickly escalated to a blinding headache. And silly me left my liquid Tylenol at home (note to self, bring some in soon!!). At first I thought it was just my normal "I'm tired" headache, but after closing my eyes and trying to relax (which normally dissipates that in a matter of minutes), no relief. I had a couple of meetings after that, which (thank you guys!) my colleagues agreed to have in darkened conference rooms. After those, it went away. Within half an hour of being back at my desk it was back. Yikes. Another note to self -- bring in sunglasses (John suggested old-fashioned accountant's shades!) when next in the office.
One colleague had a plausible theory as to why the lighting may have been bothering me so much -- my senses of smell and taste are still hypersensitive. Perhaps my sense of sight is also?
It's great working with so many concerned, thoughtful folks... I'm going to work from home tomorrow in hopes it will be a pain-free day. Then back to the office Monday, liquid Tylenol and sunglasses in hand! Another note to self -- bring in some V8 as a back-up lunch plan in case you're coming down with a blinding headache during lunch (eating tuna salad, no matter how good it is, is not easy when you're on the border of becoming nauseous!).
A bunch of people pitched in and picked up different parts of my job while I was gone, so I'm incredibly grateful for the fact that the transition back is going to be a cinch from an actual work perspective. Everything's current, so my only catch-up need is to review where everything's at from a status perspective and to pick up the reins once again.
Monday, November 2, 2009
"Exercise is done against one’s wishes and maintained only because the alternative is worse."
-- George Sheehan
Day 41 AS
Back to work in 3 days on Thursday... I'm looking forward to it intellectually, but not quite so much physically. It will be nice to get my brain back to things that are a little more stimulating than Facebook games (although I must say my Mafia Wars and Vampire Wars rankings have improved significantly during this hiatus! :) ). It will be even nicer to see and interact with some of the wonderful colleagues I am blessed with. But... I hope I can make it through a full day physically. I'm glad I'll only have 2 days this week back before the weekend... I suspect it will take a little time to get my stamina back.
My first true "public" outing in months occurred Saturday night as we attended a Halloween Birthday party to help a dear friend celebrate a milestone birthday. I almost didn't attend as it was one of my less-than-good days, (it seems I have around one of those a week), but sucked it up and went anyway. I'm glad I did -- aside from celebrating the special day, it was great seeing so many friends and getting caught up on what's been going on these last few months. I lasted almost two hours -- not too bad!
Yesterday John set up our new Wii game and we both played Wii Fit Plus a while. It was kind of fun, for exercise, surprisingly enough. I was thrilled to not have to modify the balance board. I had been looking at this a few months ago when I was over the weight limit for the game and knew of some work-arounds, so was ready to implement them, but amazingly enough I'm substantially under the weight limit now... woohoo. Not only that, but if the scale is accurate, I'm down another 8 pounds from last Tuesday... not bad.
Now, if we could just get my blood pressure up a little. It's still running around 100/60. I hate to think this, but perhaps the stress of the work place will help later this week... time will tell.
Day 41 AS
Back to work in 3 days on Thursday... I'm looking forward to it intellectually, but not quite so much physically. It will be nice to get my brain back to things that are a little more stimulating than Facebook games (although I must say my Mafia Wars and Vampire Wars rankings have improved significantly during this hiatus! :) ). It will be even nicer to see and interact with some of the wonderful colleagues I am blessed with. But... I hope I can make it through a full day physically. I'm glad I'll only have 2 days this week back before the weekend... I suspect it will take a little time to get my stamina back.
My first true "public" outing in months occurred Saturday night as we attended a Halloween Birthday party to help a dear friend celebrate a milestone birthday. I almost didn't attend as it was one of my less-than-good days, (it seems I have around one of those a week), but sucked it up and went anyway. I'm glad I did -- aside from celebrating the special day, it was great seeing so many friends and getting caught up on what's been going on these last few months. I lasted almost two hours -- not too bad!
Yesterday John set up our new Wii game and we both played Wii Fit Plus a while. It was kind of fun, for exercise, surprisingly enough. I was thrilled to not have to modify the balance board. I had been looking at this a few months ago when I was over the weight limit for the game and knew of some work-arounds, so was ready to implement them, but amazingly enough I'm substantially under the weight limit now... woohoo. Not only that, but if the scale is accurate, I'm down another 8 pounds from last Tuesday... not bad.
Now, if we could just get my blood pressure up a little. It's still running around 100/60. I hate to think this, but perhaps the stress of the work place will help later this week... time will tell.
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